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In this mixed-methods study, I examined the relationship between professional development based on the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics and teacher knowledge, classroom practice, and student learning. Participants were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. The 50-hour professional development treatment was administered to the treatment group during one semester, and then a follow-up replication treatment was administered to the control group during the subsequent semester. Results revealed significant differences in teacher knowledge as a result of the treatment using two instruments. The Learning Mathematics for Teaching scales were used to detect changes in mathematical knowledge for teaching, and an online sorting task was used to detect changes in teachers' knowledge of their standards. Results also indicated differences in classroom practice between pairs of matched teachers selected to participate in classroom observations and interviews. No statistical difference was detected between the groups' student assessment scores using the district's benchmark assessment system. This efficacy study contributes to the literature in two ways. First, it provides an evidence base for a professional development model designed to promote effective implementation of the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics. Second, it addresses ways to impact and measure teachers' knowledge of curriculum in addition to their mathematical content knowledge. The treatment was designed to focus on knowledge of curriculum, but it also successfully impacted teachers' specialized content knowledge, knowledge of content and students, and knowledge of content and teaching.
ContributorsRimbey, Kimberly A (Author) / Middleton, James A. (Thesis advisor) / Sloane, Finbarr (Committee member) / Atkinson, Robert K (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
Concerted efforts have been made within teacher preparation programs to integrate teaching with technology into the curriculum. Unfortunately, these efforts continue to fall short as teachers' application of educational technology is unsophisticated and not well integrated. The most prevalent approaches to integrating technology tend to ignore pedagogy and content and assume that the technology integration knowledge for all contexts is the same. One theoretical framework that does acknowledge content, pedagogy, and context in conjunction with technology is Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) and was the lens through which teacher development was measured and interpreted in this study. The purpose of this study was to investigate graduate teacher education students' knowledge and practice of teaching with technology as well as how that knowledge and practice changes after participation in an educational technology course. This study used a mixed-methods sequential explanatory research design in which both quantitative and qualitative data were gathered from 82 participants. TPACK pre- and postcourse surveys were administered to a treatment group enrolled in an educational technology course and to a nonequivalent control group enrolled in a learning theories course. Additionally, pre- and postcourse lesson plans were collected from the treatment group. Select treatment group participants also participated in phone interviews. Analyses compared pre- and post-course survey response differences within and between the treatment and control groups. Pre- and postlesson plan rubric score differences were compared within the treatment group. Quantitative text analyses were performed on the collected lesson plans. Open and axial coding procedures were followed to analyze interview transcripts. The results of the study revealed five significant findings: 1) graduate students entering an educational technology course reported lower ability in constructs related to teaching with technology than in constructs related to teaching in a traditional setting; 2) TPACK was malleable and TPACK instruments were sensitive to that malleability; 3) significant gains in reported and demonstrated TPACK constructs were found after participating in an educational technology course; 4) TPACK construct ability levels vary significantly by participant characteristics; and 5) influences on teaching knowledge and practice range from internet resources, to mentor teachers, and to standardized curriculum packages.
ContributorsSabo, Kent (Author) / Atkinson, Robert (Thesis advisor) / Archambault, Leanna (Committee member) / Savenye, Wilhelmina (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
A reform movement in the United States has focused on STEM education and 21st century soft skills such as critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity. This spotlight on STEM instruction provided an opportunity to explore how K-14 STEM teacher participants perceived a Design Thinking Instructional Problems (DTIP) approach to developing instructional lessons. The study used a convergent parallel mixed-methods design with a survey instrument and a multiple case study focused on K-14 in-service STEM teachers. Data were collected from teacher participants during two five-week summer Research Experience for Teachers (RET) programs as part of two separate National Science Foundation (NSF) funded Engineering Research Centers (ERC) located at a large southwestern university in the United States (n=16). The study was conducted over three phases. During Phase I and II, teacher participants experienced a Design Thinking Overview workshop and weekly DTIP professional development sessions to facilitate the development of an RET instructional lesson. Pre- and post-program DTIP surveys and background interviews were conducted with all teacher participants (n=16). From this original group, teacher participants were selected as cases. Implementation observations and post-implementation interviews were conducted with these case-teachers (n=10). The study included frequency analysis and descriptive statistics of survey data. Qualitative data were analyzed using direct interpretation, thematic analysis, and open coding with the constant comparative method. A variety of arrays, summaries, and matrices were used to visualize patterns across and within individual case-teacher results. All 16 teacher participants viewed themselves as designers solving complex instructional problems. All 16 teacher participants found the DTIP professional development sessions to have somewhat to very much provided additional value during their RET summer programs. Six of the 10 case-teachers perceived the DTIP model graphic as mostly to completely corresponding to the way in which they developed their RET instructional lesson. Lastly, eight of the 10 case-teachers chose to embed a Design Thinking student learning strategy into the RET instructional lesson they developed.
ContributorsElwood, Kristin (Author) / Savenye, Wilhelmina (Thesis advisor) / Jordan, Michelle E (Committee member) / Henriksen, Danah (Committee member) / Mishra, Punya (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018